JUDAS 62: The gripping new spy action thriller featuring BOX 88 from the master of the 21st century spy novel (BOX 88, Book 2)

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Comparisons to Le Carre are way off-beam though I think as Cumming is less cerebral and more “obvious” in his plots and character motivations. This all hits way too close to home for Kite because in 1993, when he was still a student operative, Kite was sent to the Soviet Union posing as injured operative Peter Galvin who was there to be a language teacher.

I had to chuckle at this relatable tidbit: “a recycling bucket marked ‘supposedly saving the planet.The modern day part of the story plays well on current affairs referencing recent Russian tactics with poisonings, criminal behaviour and intelligence organisation tactics.

This is a great spy thriller, entertaining, dark, and packed with plenty of suspense that makes for a gripping novel likely to appeal to a wide range of readers. Here are the classic components of a clever political thriller, with spies, double agents, plot stings and revenge. The fact that Putin's Russian thugs continue to feel free to murder people in the UK, safe in the knowledge that there will be no effective deterrence, makes the plot of this book more relevant than the average thriller. Thirty years after that dangerous mission, Kite discovers that its outcome put his name on the notorious "JUDAS" list―a record of enemies of Russia who have been targeted for assassination. In fact, it's nearly a book-in-a-book as it details Kite being sent, as an early 20s neophyte spy, to exfiltrate a Russian scientist before some other country grabbed him.This is a list of people the Russians feel betrayed by and who are therefore likely targets for elimination. For Kite to think back to the man he had been in the summer of 1993 was to remember a different person: richer in feelings, hungry for experience and obsessed by the possibilities and complications of sex. In fact, in this episode Lachlan heads up the British end and discovers to his horror that he’s on a list of people the Russians are planning to assassinate. Judas 62' involves one of the stars of the series kickoff, Lachlan Kite, as he discovers a pseudonym he'd used in the past is now a name on Russia's 'kill list', also known as the Judas list.

I don't usually have anything but praise for Charles Cumming, but I did think this was a bit too long. Secret agent Lachlan Kite faces peril in Dubai as a brutal ghost from his past works his way down a Russian kill list – with Lachlan and one of his key contacts next in line. The storytelling is first-rate, with all the minutiae of spycraft, sense of place and memorable supporting characters you could wish for.Kite's fight for survival takes him to Dubai, where he must confront the Russian secret state head on.